It has long been known that having upscale food service in a nice hotel is a significant advantage because it is an attractive amenity. Guests are inclined to stay at such hotels because the quality food service enhances the convenience and overall quality of their stay. The provision of upscale food service in a hotel also is advantageous because of the "unit economics" that exist when the hotel and restaurant share the land and development costs plus the enhancement of having banquet service. Moreover, hotel occupancy (and therefore potential restaurant patronage from the hotel) is typically high early in the week whereas local patronage of the restaurant is typically high only near or during the weekend.
Unfortunately, for several reasons, the current paradigm is: "Hotel restaurants are not good." On the one hand, guests of the hotel often seek food elsewhere, assuming that the hotel restaurant is so poor, relative to other restaurants, that the inconvenience of seeking food elsewhere is justified. On the other hand, non-guests of the hotel (e.g., local residents) tend to avoid the hotel restaurant, thereby severely limiting the market and traffic for the hotel restaurant. This is a well known and much discussed problem in the hotel industry.
Thus, there exists a need for a hotel and restaurant combination design which provides the advantages of a combined hotel and restaurant, but which gives the impression that the hotel and restaurant are separate. In this way, guests of the hotel will recognize the convenience of the nearby restaurant, while patrons of the restaurant will tend to regard the restaurant as a stand alone establishment without the presumption that the food and service is of perceived hotel restaurant quality.